


settle in and find a home

by seeley



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 12:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13077339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seeley/pseuds/seeley
Summary: Ronan and Opal learn to be a family.





	settle in and find a home

Ronan was trying. He felt that that statement ought to go down in the history books: “Ronan Lynch was trying but sometimes that just wasn’t enough.”

The fact of the matter was that he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. He was an eighteen year old high school dropout who was now the father (figure?) of a little satyr girl that he pulled out from a magical dream world. What the fuck was his life.

(Once, while drunk off of champagne, Blue had asked Ronan how genetics worked in the dream world. “I mean, if you think about it,” said Blue, her champagne flute hanging precariously from her fingertips, “You gave birth to Orphan Girl. I mean, you pulled her out of your dreams.” Then her mouth had dropped open and her eyes had gone wide. “Ohmygod, Ronan. You’re a mom.” Then she had giggled until she fell asleep and then Ronan had deposited her on a nearby couch.)

Ronan couldn’t help to overanalyze the little details. How were they going to hide Orphan Girl’s hooves? How would they hide her hooves during doctor’s visits? Did she have internal organs? Would she ever get sick? Was she going to go to public school? How were they going to get her a Social Security Number? A birth certificate? Did satyr girls pulled from dreams go through puberty? 

Ronan’s head hurt. Maura told him he needed to name Orphan Girl before he went and did anything drastic. 

“You can’t just go around calling her ‘Orphan Girl’,” said Maura as she shuffled around the kitchen as she made tea. “What kind of name is that? Also, don’t just name her something without telling her- she needs to have a say in it as well. She already feels ostracized so don’t make her feel more like an outsider.”

So Ronan drove back to the Barns after he gathered Orphan Girl from where she had fallen asleep on the couch. During the car ride back home, Orphan Girl sat in the back and softly narrated the scenery as it passed. Chainsaw rested in her lap and she gently stroked her feathers. Orphan Girl’s English was improving, but her vocabulary was still pretty lackluster, so her narration was a mixture of English, Latin, and the dream language. Ronan considered telling her the English words she didn’t know, but she looked content and comfortable and he didn’t want to disrupt the air of peacefulness that settled over the car. He didn’t have the radio on, but he found that he didn’t mind listening to Orphan Girl’s narration instead.

When he pulled down the driveway to the Barns, Adam’s car was already parked out front. When she saw Adam’s car, Orphan Girl’s face split into a smile as bright as the sun. Ronan grinned at Orphan Girl’s smile. He pulled into the garage and put the BMW into park. 

She leaned forward and said, “Kerah, I like nature.” 

Then she laughed wildly and ran inside where she would bound into Adam’s arms. Chainsaw let out a loud caw and followed her.

Which, okay. 

On its own, what she said didn’t matter much. After all, what kid doesn’t like nature? The part that mattered was that she told him what she liked. In the three or so months she had lived with Ronan she hadn’t said much of anything. She babbled all the damn time but usually it was either in Latin or the dream language and it was always quiet- barely louder than a whisper. She communicated through actions more than words, which Ronan could appreciate, but he knew she had a lot to say, but just not the means to say it. When Ronan asked her simple questions like “What do you want for breakfast” or “Is there anything you want to do today?” she would open her mouth to answer then she would shut it in frustration a few seconds later. She could never seem to give her opinion on things by saying it outright. She would point or shake her head or any other gesture, but she never said her thoughts aloud.

The only person she acted carefree around was Adam. Whenever she was around him, she would talk nonstop about anything and everything. Half of what she said was unintelligible, due to a mixture of her child-like lisp and the dream language, but that wasn’t the point, not really. The point was that she felt comfortable enough around Adam to talk without being prompted first. At first Ronan was confused as to why Orphan Girl had… imprinted, for lack of a better word, on Adam. Then Calla, of all people, had explained it to him.

“Listen, Snake,” she had begun as she applied a horrendous shade of lilac lipstick. “Your dream daughter found a friend. So what? Stop being jealous.”

“What the fuck,” Ronan had grumbled. “I’m not jealous.”

“I’m physic, dumbass. And you shouldn’t be jealous by-the-fucking-way. Your dream daughter adores you. It’s just that she and Coca Cola shirt shared a connection with Cabeswater in a way you didn’t. They were both products of it; Coca Cola boy was the magician and the girl was brought into existence because of it.” She had finished putting on her awful lipstick choice and tucked it back into her makeup bag. “That little girl feels comfortable with him because no one else understands her like he does.”

Ronan had clenched his jaw and knocked his fist against the bathroom countertop. He had refused to meet Calla’s eyes when he had asked, “Is she ever going to feel… comfortable around me?”

Then Calla had looked over at Ronan with a wholly unimpressed look. “Boys,” she had sighed and shook her head. “They’re morons. Yes, she feels comfortable around you. You’re basically her… father-- haha, Good Lord. Ronan Lynch a dad at eighteen. Anyway, you need to be patient. She’s from another world. Adjusting to life here is going to be difficult for her. All you can do is let her settle in at the pace she needs.”

Ronan wasn’t patient. It was a well known fact that he wasn’t. He was electric adrenaline, car flying down an open stretch of road under a black velvet sky, bass turned all the way up, night air whipping past your face, stop light flashing yellow- red- green. He was knuckles splitting as they smash into a wall, loose teeth, poison on an open wound.

Unguibus et rostro.

He wasn’t patient.

It was after dinner and Orphan Girl was curled into his lap. Ronan sat cross legged on the floor with his back resting against the couch; a documentary about the ocean played on the television. Adam was sprawled across the couch, still wearing the jeans and t-shirt he had changed into when he had gotten back earlier that day. His head lolled to one side and his eyelashes cast long shadows on his cheeks. Orphan Girl sat in Ronan’s lap, the back of her head rested on his chest. She cradled Chainsaw in her lap, occasionally stroking her silky feathers. The light from the television washed the room in azul, casting oblong shadows.

Ronan felt like exploding. Or punching a wall.

Instead, he tucked a piece of Orphan Girl’s hair behind her ear.

He wasn’t patient, but maybe he could be.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea in my head for awhile so I wanted to get it on paper (or, more accurately, Word Document). I'm going to come back and expand/ edit upon this snippet but I wanted to see if it was something that people would actually ready, so I'm sorry it's a little all over the place. 
> 
> Anyway, comments and constructive criticism is welcomed! 
> 
> xx Seeley


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